Moshe Rabbeinu would reflect this idea at the most unique point. He helped save Tzipporah when she was thrown by the other shepherds. Tzipporah, who would become his wife, comes home, and her father asks her, “How did you come home so early?” She says, “A Egyptian man saved us.” So the Gemara is Egyptian man. Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t an Egyptian man. Some say he looked like an Egyptian man, but the Gemara has a very different explanation. What does it mean, “An Egyptian man saved us”? Moshe was not Egyptian. The Gemara says, “Here’s what it means.” Moshe Rabbeinu saved the girls, and now they come out of the well and are saved. Tzipporah and her sisters want to turn to Moshe and thank him. Moshe Rabbeinu says, “Don’t thank me. I’m only here because of an Egyptian man that I saved or killed, and because of that I had to run away. Because I had to run away, that’s why you’re saved. It’s not me.”
Which means Moshe Rabbeinu, as he’s about to get married and someone wants to give him credit, Hashem says, “Moshe Rabbeinu, you have to stop at that moment to realize it’s not you. Even though you’re the one who saved them, but you’re only here because of somebody else.” So many times in our life, we only acknowledge ourselves and don’t acknowledge how many people got us here. Sometimes the people who did something negative to us motivated us, inspired us, continued us, competed with us, and that made us stronger. The other people—you’re going to blame other people? You’re going to knock other people? Other people are how we survive and how we thrive.
Moshe Rabbeinu, literally when he’s finding his wife, has to be able to stop and say, “You’re not marrying me because of me. You’re marrying me because of some Egyptian that caused me to get a chance and opportunity to meet you.” Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest leader to ever live, will need his brother, his sidekick, next to him everywhere he goes. I know. “Sidekick” is the right way to term Aharon HaKohen. But he and his brother—Moshe Rabbeinu couldn’t talk without Aharon. Everybody can talk. Anybody can talk. But Moshe Rabbeinu can’t talk. You want to know why Moshe Rabbeinu can’t talk? Because Moshe Rabbeinu, in these powerful moments of leadership, needs to realize he’s not doing this alone. Because we never are. So when you look at someone you want to blame, you’re not acknowledging how much you need those people: your family, your friends, co-workers, and people in your community. All these people you talk about, all these people that sometimes you’re frustrated about, all these people you point fingers at. If there’s anything we learned in Auschwitz, it’s that the only reason those who were able to survive did so was by holding hands with one another. That’s it.